To the Chagrin
by Revolation
Summary: Her family doesn't know why. They just assume anyway. Even Tōshirō himself doesn't know. To him it just seemed like it was on a whim. Only Karin knew why they somehow both ended up in front of the door to her house as she went to open it...
1. Important Author's Note

**Important Author's Note: **To all who read the wrong story earlier, it is because I accidently uploaded the chapter of a different story unintentionally when I meant to upload the actual chapter with fixed grammar mistakes, etc. I sincerely apologize for any confusion. Please enjoy the actual story by going to the next chapter.

~Revolation Oct 22nd 12:08 AM EST


	2. To Their Chagrin

Author's Note at bottom as always. I Don't own Bleach. Tite Kubo does. This is a one-shot I did while working on new chapters for my main story, The Princess and The Tiger.This is also my first one-shot and second story. That is all.

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><p>'To their Chagrin'<br>-

It all started when Karin showed up with Tōshirō Hitsugaya at the Kurosaki residence after school. She came home to the intrigued wonder of the rest of the Kuroaki's _after _Yuzu had already come home.

Sure, it was true that Karin had always come home after Yuzu in the past since she often played soccer with her friends. This was different, in that she didn't come home her normally 'after playing soccer' time, but actually came a little after Yuzu had gotten there, with Tōshirō in tow. This meant that she had purposely walked home with Tōshirō. As insignificant as that seemed, it was a jolt to the Kurosaki household.

Yuzu had a cheeky-teasing all in one grin as she addressed Karin.

"Is_ this _why you said 'go on home without me' Karin-chan?" asked the blushing doe eyed girl.

Karin's eyes widened as she realized she hadn't been thinking clearly about exactly how things would've gone down.

_"So much for going straight to my room..." _thought Karin.

Isshin was beside himself to say the least.

"Masaki! The dormant hormonal springs have finally burst forth and our daughter has finally felt the urge to bring home a vigorous, pubescent male!"

"More like stalked her home," said Ichigo glaring at the white-haired captain from the couch.

"I was actually invited Kurosaki," said the aforementioned captain with his eyes shut, arms crossed, in a combination of annoyance and a tiny hint of embarrassment.

"Hey Tōshirō, I thought I told you to call us by first name. Everyone will be confused if you keep saying 'Kurosaki' all the time," said Karin speaking up for the first time. She knew if she got all tempered and defensive that it would make matters worse. So her plan was to stay calm. Not only for her, but for Tōshirō as well. She had managed to convince herself that it was him she was really worried about.

However, Isshin proved once again to be the antithesis of his daughter's ideals. With him being a wildcard and chaotic element to her schemes, nothing could ever go according to her plans whenever he was involved.

"Tōshirō? Nice to meet you Tōshirō!" he said practically teleporting over to the current 10th division captain, shaking his hand while catching both Karin and the captain off guard. "And already on voluntary first name basis with little _Karin-chan_! It all happens so fast! Masak-AGH!" he yelled with his face getting pounded into the wall by a heel. Karin had quickly snapped.

"What kind of freakish father cheers at his daughter bringing home a random boy he doesn't even know! Isn't it supposed to be the opposite!" she yelled stomping his head into the wall, before her head snapped around at her sister. "Yuzu this is all your fault!" she yelled, embarrassment finally creeping on her face in the form of a rosy hue.

Yuzu however was smirking in the kitchen making a peace sign with her right hand while the other was behind her head. "Oh, Karin-chan! What_ever_ are you talking about?" she asked innocently, yet obviously in a jeering tone. "_What _exactly is my fault again?" she asked waving her hand back and forth.

It was true. Yuzu had been waiting for this kind of thing to happen with Tōshirō for a while now, but what actually had finally happened was all Karin's doing. Finally bringing home someone on her own, and a boy at that! Yuzu was beyond ecstatic. It was like one of her shoujo romance mangas was happening in real life, but was only at the beginning. Yuzu however, was already plotting out the rest of the story and character arcs in her head. It was safe to say she was the 'number one and only' fan of the pairing of Karin and Tōshirō. Oh, and then there was Isshin. Now the relationship just needed an official name.

Before Karin could respond, Ichigo jumped into the scene, talking casually without looking up from what he was reading while smirking so nobody else could see.

"Hey Karin, I've been noticing this for a while, but did you know that when you insult people with your questions, you answer your questions with the insult? 'What type of freakish father?' Just that, a freakish one," he said gesturing to Isshin whose face was currently implanted into the sheetrock of the wall. Groans could be heard coming from within the wall.

Whatever had been building up in Karin to say to both Yuzu and then Ichigo, came out in the form a big exhalation, before she grabbed Tōshirō's hands; an act seeming sensed by Isshin despite the current placement of his head.

"Tch. Whatever, let's go upstairs Tōshirō," said Karin.

"The act of coitus! It's too soon!" cried Isshin before a huge thump caused by Karin's foot created vibrations throughout the wall causing him head numbing pain.

"This wall is way too hollow. You should get that checked out Beardo," said Karin with her old nickname for her father, as she began walking up the stairs with her apparent classmate.

Tōshirō had observed everything up to this point without saying much. Karin had tried to prepare him for meeting her family through what he had interpreted as clinical psychological conditioning, but he figured that she was over exaggerating things.

It turns out that she wasn't all bluff, but still personally, he'd seen worse in the form of the antics certain vice captain by herself. All Karin had was her sister which reminded him of a certain _other _vice captain, and her over-excited father. The latter man gave off strange vibes to him, but they were so small that he subconsciously ignored them.

"Alright old man, I guess I should get you out the wall," said Ichigo plodding over to his father's prone form.

"Be careful Onii-san," said a cipher Yuzu with her back turned, getting out a frying pan and placing it on the stove. She had gotten more used to the frequent acts of "violence" in the Kurosaki household. It was up to the point that she could calmly cook in this type of situation, yet she still showed her normal concern.

"Yeah I guess,..." said Ichigo as he put one foot up on the wall, grabbed his father's body, and pulled to the renewed pain of Isshin.

"Man you're really jammed in there," said Ichigo with a bored tone, his usual scowl on his face. All while seemingly ignoring Isshin's muffled cries.

"It'll be a pain if I leave you there, so I guess I just have to pull harder," he said, rolling up his sleeves and pulling with full force.

Cries could be heard all the way from downstairs.

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><p><strong>In Karin&amp;Yuzu's bedroom<br>_(and supposedly Rukia's room as well, but she loves her some Ichigo's closet)_**

"Man, they're so annoying sometimes!" exclaimed Karin face-palming.

"Really Kurosaki? I didn't expect you to get embarrassed so easily," teased Tōshirō.

Karin quickly retorted after closing her door shut, and sitting next to Tōshirō, "Oh? That's coming from the 'stoic shinigami genius' who had to squint his eyes to keep from blushing from the accusations of a human teenager girl and her moody older brother.

Tōshirō didn't know how to react to the 'stoic shinigami genius' quip. In fact, unbeknownst to Karin, that was the only thing he had heard. Sure that's how people saw him, but there was much more to him than that mask that he took on. It took a couple of seconds for him to realize what else she had said.

"Wait! What? You were worse than me! Plus your sister was accusing _you_, not _me_!"

"Yet, you were still embarrassed," responded Karin.

"Don't make this about me! This is about you playing hopscotch with the back of your father's head out of nothing but embarrassment," he said, tightly closing his eyes shut,

"Your doing it again. Quit it, you look like an old man when you do that," goaded Karin seemingly immune to what Tōshirō had just said.

"I am an old man...well by your standards anyway,..." he said trailing off.

"Then maybe I should be more clear,..." she said standing up off the bed, crossing her arms and smirking.

_"That's not a good sign," _thought Tōshirō with dread at the very moment of seeing Karin's lips twitch upwards.

"It doesn't matter how old you actually are. Normally you look like a kid, and squinting like that makes you look like a little old man, so it looks really weird," she explained with the articulateness of an employee of academia.

Tōshirō was unfazed by Karin's taunt. This was her way of testing him. Gauging his reaction, his ego, his insecurities. Basically the psycological mind games people play in everyday conversation without even realizing it. He thought of some simple retorts at lightning fast speed.

_"'You are basically physically younger than me, and actually younger than me.' Nah. There's too many openings in that one-," _he thought before going with an avant-garde come back.

"Gee, in that case maybe I should take scowling lessons from your brother then if I want to stop looking like such a brat," he said sarcastically.

"No way! You don't want to hurt or strain yourself by making that high level of a frown," said Karin as if assuring him otherwise in the same way she consoled patients when working in the clinic.

"Heh, you _would_ know since you make the same exact scowl as he does," said Tōshirō keeping up their playful discussion, and yet unintentionally ending it at the same time.

Karin looked like she had seen a ghost, her face as white as a sheet (for lack a bitter cliché).

"Y-You take that back! I don't look like that idiot!" she said grabbing the boy from his collar raising him off the bed from his sitting position. Her eyes searched his as she demanded his affirmation. Then she thought how even with Ichigo's scowl, that back earlier she could just barely see a hint of a smirk on his face before her eyes widened in revelation.

_"Really? Even you…Ichi-nii.."_

"Did I say you look like him? I don't seem to recall saying that at all," said Tōshirō rather smugly. It was his time to shine in the banter contest. Karin let go of him, allowing him to plop back on the bed before crossing her arms, fuming at not knowing what to say while looking right at him. It was like she was demanding him to make the next move while knowing she was out of them, yet keeping up a front to throw him off. 'Lucky her,' as Tōshirō began talking again.

"So, 'stoic shinigami genius' huh? You've been talking to Matsumoto too much," said Tōshirō turning and looking out the window with a look in his eyes the showed much beyond the years his appearance suggested he had.

"Okay, aside from you basically creating a paradox again from your expression, what's up with the way you just said that? When Rangiku first told me about you back when you saved my friends and I from the hollow while we were playing soccer, she was just saying who you were. 'My captain has the strongest ice-type zanpakutō in all of Soul Society, blablabla, is considered a "genius" or somthing 'cause he graduated from some academy super fast. Plus, he's the youngest captain ever in the history of all the universes combined.' That type of stuff. She basically gave me what it would say on the back of some collectible trading card of you. The 'stoic' thing was just Rangiku being Rangiku. You do act stoic at times, but that's just you. I know you can be silly, but you just act all mature because well...you are mature...even though you look like an elementary schooler," said Karin with an oblivious grin.

_"She just had to ruin that. And just when is she going to at least bump me up to middle school tier or junior high status or something? I already said that I look physically older than her...well in my mind at least. If I said that out loud, that would be a whole other discussion," _thought Tōshirō.

"Thanks Karin," he replied. Even though they never exactly clarified what they were talking about with each other, besides Karin's "What's up with the way you just said that?" remark, they both knew. It was an unspoken type of thing.

Karin positively beamed for some reason unknown to Tōshirō. He thought she was just her reciprocating his thanks, when the reason was really in what he _actually_ had said when calling her name.

"So um...I've been wondering for some time now. At first I kind of just went with it, but now I can't hold it in any longer..." he trailed off for dramatic effect.

_"I don't like the smugness of his voice. Plus he's being so vague about it. Out with it already!" _thought Karin before glowering and narrowing her eyes as she took a sip of water from a glass that had been carefully sitting on her bed frame.

"What exactly did you literally drag me from the school to your house to ask me," he asked in an extremely blunt fashion catching Karin off-guard as she spit out her water on the floor nearly choking.

It was true though. Karin had stayed behind, telling Yuzu to go ahead because 'she would catch up,' and then went up to the roof where Tōshirō was at like usual typing away on his cell phone. She proceeded to drag him by his tie completely out the school and halfway to her house before finally deciding at that point to explain after _numerous _'complaints' from the boy that they 'had to talk'. For some reason Tōshirō had accepted that horrible answer, even though she gave it about fifteen minutes after his initial question sequence of 'Oh hey Kurosaki...Wait, what are you doing Kurosak-Gaah! Why are you pulling my tie! Wait up, where are we going? !'

Karin straightened up her posture.

"Alright, so here's the thing. From the times I've talked with Rangiku, she's told me some things like what a zanpakutō is, about hollows and shinigami, and recently arrancar, but I want to know more. I want to learn more. Before, I could ignore what I thought were just ghosts, but now I know I can't ignore _pluses_, and _hollows_. Most especially _Jibakureis_(demi-hollows)," she said shuddering at the memory of the demi-hollow in the abandoned hospital on Don Kanonji's show.

"I can't go on any longer ignoring them because well, they certainly aren't ignoring me," she said before comically backhanding the same annoying plus soul who had been following her around recently, all without directly acknowledging it as she continued talking to the 10th division captain.

"What I'm saying is, I want to be a shinigami like Ichi-nii or at least learn some kinds of techniques on how to defend myself in case a hollow you know, decides to rip off the roof and eat me while I'm sleeping or something like tha-" she said, but was cut off by a beeping sound.

A headache instantly materialized as it seemingly convulsed around her very brain as she held her head in her palms.

Tōshirō took out his beeping cell phone, and looked at it.

"Hollows. They're near here," he said stating it rather than saying it to Karin.

"They're probably after that plus you just knocked out," he said observing the prone form of the plus. It had bandages on it as if it had been hit numerous times before. He then saw and took concern with the state Karin was in.

_"Or maybe they're just after you...,"_ he thought as his brows furrowed, reflecting on just what she had said to him.

"Don't worry Kurosaki. I'll take care of the hollows...if your brother doesn't first anyways, and then I'll be back," he said as he turned and began phasing through the wall in a similar manner that Rukia had in the past.

Before his ear and the rest of his head completely went through the wall to go outside the house Karin managed to get in a few words even in her prone position.

"It's not 'Kurosaki,' Tōshirō. It's Karin."

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><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>

**Chapter Started: Oct 20th, 2011 1:52 PM EST**

**Chapter Finished: Oct 21st, 2011 3:43 PM EST**

**Revisions: Oct 21st, 2011 5:14 PM EST  
>New revisions: July 4th, 2012, 7:52 PM EST<strong>

My first one-shot and second story. Something I felt like doing while working on chapters for my main Bleach story The Princess and The Tiger. The scene of the Kurosaki family's freaking out over Karin's supposed 'crush on a boy' has been in my mind for a while now. However, you should realize that never in this story does it specifically say that Karin actually likes Tōshirō. I (normally) don't like cliché'd plots. Ha.

Any romance is open to interpretation. I put alot of 'stuff' in there for multiple different interpretations myself, but someone can always come up with completely different ones. I tried to make it seem like at a general first glance that they were just acquaintances right now. Anyway, this is a one-shot. Hope you liked it. Review please if you want. I do need feedback after all. ;)


	3. To Everyone's Chagrin

Author's Note at bottom as always. I Don't own Bleach. Tite Kubo does. This is now officially a two-shot I did while working on my main story, The Princess and The Tiger. If you haven't noticed by now, this story is kind of a crack-fic. This chapter especially. I tend to ramble alot, so that kind of seeped into my narration. That's just my style for this story though. Also...I'm kind of worried that people overseas or in other countries(I'm american) won't get some of the jokes. lol. This is not beta'd. I convert my files from Google Docs, to Microsoft Word, and then upload them here so there are always errors that weren't there before. Mainly spacing errors. Also, I just realized that the Japanese characters aren't showing up. Sorry about that. That is all.

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><p>'To Everyone's Chagrin'<br>-

It had been about one minute and twenty two seconds since the resident frosty shinigami himself had disappeared through Karin's bedroom wall, to go fight a hollow...or hollows...however many he said he had to go fight anyway. Not that Karin was counting or anything.

It's just that this awkward boredom she was facing was on a tier level never before experienced by a mere mortal. Both the awkwardness and the boredom. What was she supposed to do, just stand there looking at the already long since dried paint on the wall dry just a little more while waiting for him to come back? Twenty seven and three fourths more seconds...She decided she should probably do her homework or something...Nah, who actually does their homework early?

For some reason she had the sparkling bright idea to go _downstairs_. Absentmindedly with the intent of getting a snack. But by the time she got downstairs, she realized/remembered just _why _she had gone straight to her room upon arriving home anyway.

_"Oh man. I knew things had gotten too quiet,"_ thought Karin deadpanning.

Apparently, the downstairs had went through sort of a timeskip. Not that anything was rearranged or feng sui-ified for good vibes or anything. Especially not the latter since Karin was definitely getting some foreboding vibes. Isshin's head was now dislodged from the wall from which the punctured hole had enlarged from his particularly forceful extraction (ex Ichigo). He had his back turned in the kitchen(where Yuzu was preparing dinner) as if in a pose and upon sensing Karin's arrival, turned around dramatically.

"Masaki! The deed is dooo~~~ne! And with such swiftnes-ACK!" yelled Isshin at something particularly hard being thrown at his face. He couldn't tell what it was since iit had caused explosive shockwaves from the impact of hitting him.

"Not now old man or you'll ruin my appetite. If I lose it now(especially if _you _cause me to lose it), I won't be hungry for the rest of the day and then wake up tomorrow starving," said Karin nonchalantly, yet with a tick mark slowly dissolving on her forehead.

"K-karin-chan! Wasn't that going too far?" asked Yuzu as she stopped cutting up some carrots.

_"When did Karin-chan pick up that vase? Let alone throw it...," _she thought before a even more important and world crashing thought entered her mind. _"...When did we even get that vase? !" _she thought in alarm.

She was seriously sweat-dropping at that point. This was Yuzu Kurosaki we're talking about. Self proclaimed upkeeper of _the _"Residence Kurosaki"(and that's saying something). She took pride in knowing the house like the back of her hand. Nothing came in or went out of the house without her somehow knowing, so Karin throwing strange alien furniture really unnerved her. Maybe it was just her subconscious OCD.

"Nope." was all Karin responded, walking into the kitchen and opening the refrigerator. A frown formed on her face at viewing the refrigerator's contents...or lack of them.

Suddenly she thought on what exactly Yuzu had said, "It wasn't 'too far'. Actually, it was _too short", _she responded again, adequately pleased with her sub-par joke(Karin's the type to not care if her jokes are "funny" or not. She tells them for her own pleasure).

"What do you mean 'Nope'?" asked Yuzu doing her best 'Karin' impression on the last word as she ran over to the scene of impact, conveniently stepping _over _her out-cold father.

"Otousan's probably blind now or something! It hit him in the eye," she continued with 'worry' in her voice, and Karin now chugging straight from the carton of orange juice.

"Huh? Yuzu, I thought we discussed this earlier with Ichi-nii: 'At this point, if it doesn't kill him, then it's fair game.'"

_"And even if he __**did**__ die, I'd still beat him up," _thought Karin knowing the fate of those who die. They simply became spirits. Or 'pluses', but she didn't know that specific term anyway. The point is, she would still be able to beat him up. And it seemed since learning more about all this shinigami and afterlife stuff, that the value of 'life' kind of diminished to her. However disturbing that would seem to people on the outside looking in. It's just that people didn't just stop existing after they died that kind of got to her.

It might seem weird that the realization would only just now be getting to her since she already long since knew about spirits in the first place being a 'high spec spirit medium'(as in she could see ghosts) even before any of this weird shinigami/hollow stuff started happening. But she'd been in "comedic denial" this whole time, so when the appearance of hollows and shinigamis along with Ichigo's predicament slammed her in the face, she was forced to accept it all at once. This, all combined forced her to try to adapt _a la_ kicking soccer balls at hollows, and of course keeping company with Rangiku and Tōshirō(since Ichigo was no help). Speaking of which, when was that white haired idiot getting back anyway.

She suddenly realized what exactly Yuzu was doing, and nearly choked on her last gulp of orange juice in laughter.

"Annnd...why are you scoping out the vase instead of helping Beardo? He looks like he's in pretty bad shape(not that I'm empathizing with the guy at all. Just saying, he's kind of drooling on the floor and that's disgusting. I'm trying to help you out Yuzu so you don't have to clean up Beardo-slobber)".

Dear Yuzu however, was fixated on a certain other matter. Apparently not picking up on Karin's important side-comment(which was longer than her actual comment).

"Karin-chan, this isn't ours! Where did it come from?" asked Yuzu with her back turned to Karin in front of Isshin's fallen form.

Karin however made the sound without opening her mouth that signifies "I don't know", before walking over to the scene deciding _not_ to step on her fathers head on the way there.

Suddenly her eyes almost bulged out of her head. Yuzu had nearly reconstructed the entire vase in front of her(from nothing but shards and some bigger pieces as well, but still it was an amazing feat). It wasn't that particular accolade that got Karin's attention however. It was what the vase actually was.

"It's so tacky!" she exclaimed in unrestrained horror.

The vase was ceramic and white, but near the top opening it stretched into rabbit ears horizontal to the opening. Rabbit ears. That's not all since the "Pièce de résistance" was the none other than the visage of a certain Chappy the Rabbit™® on the front of the vase. And apparently water had been inside of it as the entire floor was wet. Karin personally was hoping it wasn't actually the extent of Isshin's slobber.

"Where did you get this Karin-chan?" asked Yuzu, her face covered by her hair, and her head facing the floor so Karin couldn't see.

"Eh? I just picked it up by the bottom of the stairs over there where it was _conveniently _at. It was instinctual really. It's all an rage induced blur, but I'm pretty sure I remember chucking it at Dad who was _conveniently_ being Dad at the moment," she said spacing out as if recalling a distant memory. Then her visage returned to normal "...Oh yeah, and there was this white carnation in it, but I took it out."

Yuzu's head spun over to where Karin indicated, and dashed over to it, somehow preventing the vase from falling apart at the same time until she got back.

"Karin-chan, this is a rose!" shouted Yuzu, her face now visible and it showed extreme pent-up excitement.

"Oh man, I always regret calling flora out of name," said Karin without even hiding the sarcasm.

"No seriously Karin-chan. Look at this! This is a Chappy vase! A Chappy vase!"

"Yep. It sure is." Karin was in full-on deadpan mode.

"And who else would this be for b-besides...BESIDES!" said Yuzu, borderline exploding with aforementioned excitement.

Karin whose 'twin telepathy' with Yuzu had long since been disconnected, finally noticed Yuzu was cuing her to respond and managed to get out a response.

"O-oh sorry, ok uh...um..wait no-don't tell me, I got it..I got it..."

"..."

"..."

At this point Yuzu was blushing with excitement and changing colors like a chameleon with suspense at Karin's answer.

"Yeeeah I don't have it so tell m-" began Karin before Yuzu did just that.

"RUKIA-NEE! It's for Rukia-nee!"

Karin's eyes widened at this. Not that there was any surprise or even plot twist, just how loud Yuzu yelled.

"W-wait Yuzu, how do you know that thing isn't Rukia-nee's to begin with?" asked Karin in genuine curiosity. Usually it was _her_ explaining things to Yuzu, so this was a twist.

Yuzu was currently in what Karin had coined as 'Romantic Chessmaster' mode. In this mode Yuzu was unstoppable. Even more powerful than Isshin. Not really annoying like him, but there was potential depending on the situation and that's what Karin truly feared. Being around Isshin too long had corrupted the poor girl. Which was ironic because everyone said Yuzu was similar to Masaki, and Karin was similar to Isshin; which Karin vehemently denied much more than her being compared to Ichigo.

"Duh Karin-chan! Even though we know Rukia-nee loves Chappy-san, she isn't exactly the best artist! This is _homemade_, and who else here besides Ichigo is even closely artistic? Well besides me, but I didn't make it, so it has to be onii-chan! Plus it's so obvious that even if Rukia-nee made the vase, it would have a '_one red' _rose instead of a white one. 'One' as in the 'Ichi' in Ichigo. Red as in strawberry! Duh!"

_"Did she just basically say I suck at art?...Nah we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. And, she said 'even if Rukia-nee made the vase'? Well I guess no matter what Rukia-nee makes it's going to somehow be rabbit related so it's actually possible. She could have just been trying to make a innocent vase and it turned out like __that __instead. Hmm."_

"Woah, I guess you have a point there. If red is for strawberry, then what's white for? Not sure about the symbolic rose theories you've got going on, but you're still thinking of Ichi-nii like you would an anime character*, and making shoujo plots in your head out of his apparent love life. _And _despite how horribly tacky that thing is, making the thought of it slightly believable...I'm still finding it hard to believe Ichi-nii could even attempt at being 'romantic'. It's just too out of character. Isn't he still in the 'subconcious denial stage' when it comes to Rukia-nee anyway?

"Meanwhile," said Karin taking a breath and crossing her arms, pointing to her face, "This is me in denial of the whole scenario in general."

"But that's just it my dear Karin-chan! Our Ichigo's transforming into a man!" yelled Isshin in Karin's ear causing her to jump back in pure alarm.

"You! When did you even re-spawn!" yelled Karin. Yuzu wasn't fazed at all by any of this.

"Naive little Karin-chan," began Isshin, increduously shaking his head. "Did you really think a daughter could sense the refined and honed technique of her own father's "Super Daddy-Isshin tip-toe getaway technique©!"

"If by that name, you mean the Creeper Shuffle® which is what it's actually called, then yes."

_"That obnoxiously long name rings a bell for some reason**. And 'transforming into a man'? Isn't that just 'puberty'. Use words, not phrases old man. Anyway, I was under the impression Ichi-nii just skipped that phase seeing as Beardo definitely never went thought it," _thought Karin with a scowl.

"Pull up a chair and allow daddy to explain things to his daughters!" said Isshin rolling in out of nowhere what looked like and covered up easel.

_"What kind of '_things'_? This better not be a continuation of last time's 'attempt'. If he so much as even says '__**The**__' and '__**Talk**__' in the same sentence again, I'm getting my 'spawn kill' right here and now."_

Dramatically pulling the covers off the easel, Isshin revealed a white board which had a ton of writing on it. Bulleted lists, numbered lists, and even complex math equations, the latter of which ticked Karin off. But it had a certain title on it that caught her eye at the last second. Isshin began reading said title. He read it exactly as written.

"Introducing! Daddy-Isshin's **talk **about: **The**-," began Isshin before a dark killing-intent aura surrounded Karin at hearing the key words. Abruptly, it disappeared, as her eyes widened and she read the title aloud.

"Wha? 'Introducing Daddy Isshin's talk about: 'The master plan of romance''? What is this supposed to be old man? Ah! Man I can't believe I just read that disgusting titl-Hey wait Yuzu! Don't try sneaking away, why is _your _handwriting on that thing as well? !"

_"At least the title isn't like last time," _thought Yuzu sweatdropping that she had been caught. Isshin even managed to catch her off guard, but this was the first time in months.

Isshin had a completely serious face as he began talking. "Allow me to explain Karin-chan, we're in the final stages of an operation. An operation where Ichigo finally acknowledges his feelings for our third daughter-"

"Why are you still calling her that? Does this 'operation' have a name?" interjected Karin, almost stating it rather than asking it.

"-and finally secures his relationship in the coveted 'official' status." he finished.

As he was saying this, he was pointing at various representations on the white board. The 'official status' being symbolized by a stick figure with fancy clothing and orange hair holding hands with a shorter stick figure with a yellow dress, and black hair including Rukia's trademark strand of hair in the middle of her face. Yuzu's handiwork. According to the girl, she and not Karin was apparently artistic after all (yes Karin is still miffed about that comment).

"This vase means we're entering the final stages Karin-chan," said Yuzu with excitement.

_"Yuzu. Dad's mutated her shoujo addiction into this. She's too far gone," _concluded Karin sweatdropping before a scowl returned on her face,

"Is this really happening right now? I'm going to go back upstairs and pretend I never head any of this-"

However she was cut off apparently by Isshin, who had never finished his previous sentence as he continued.

"-Thus all but confirming the inevitable GRANDCHILDREN!" he ran over to his left and knocking over the easel, tears streaming, hugging the wall sized memorial poster of Masaki.

"...Yep, I'm out of here," said Karin after viewing that spectacle, grabbing a ton of snacks out the cabinets, and approaching the stairs, somehow all in one step.

Yuzu began going back to the kitchen.

Just then, the front door opened, and two people swiftly walked inside, one holding the door for the other.

"Just admit that you suck at directions Ichigo!" shouted Rukia with her fist bawled up looking back up at Ichigo as she walked in front of him. She looked a little different with her shorter haircut, but it was growing on everyone.

"How could I 'suck at directions' going to my own house! This is my town! I know which way's quickest!" responded Ichigo with his eyes closed, and in a scowl, letting the door close behind him.

"That's a good question, which begs the next question of: How could you get lost in your own town? You're the one who wanted to 'take a quicker way home' since you complained that coming here all the way from Urahara's was too far away. We should have just taken the normal way like normal people. Now we're late for your Yuzu's wonderful cooking! And Ojisan hates when _you're _late for dinner," finished Rukia in her infamous 'schoolgirl voice' that Ichigo hated.

"Just shove it," responded Ichigo causing Rukia to sport a smug smirk.

Ichigo didn't miss her use of the word "you're", instead of "we're". It was true. There was no way Rukia would ever get into any trouble in the Kurosaki household. Darn favoritism.

Before either one could continue talking, Ichigo and Rukia noticed the spooky aura in the room. It was the type of feeling that you were being watched. Three voyeurs looked at them from across the floor with creepy glowing stars in their eyes before one broke the mood and the silence.

"Hey Ichi-nii!" shouted Karin from across the room.

"E-Eh? Yeah Karin?" said Ichigo shocked at Karin's unusual outburst.

"Two things. Quit scrunching your face up like that. I already talked to Tōshirō about that, and secondly, hate to be blunt, but I'm just going to come out and say Dad broke your vase thingy with his hard head as payback for the way you yanked his head out the wall. Yeah I know, ironic right?"

Yuzu almost fell over in the kitchen.

It took about two seconds for it to sink in. Two seconds of stark silence before, "HE DID WHAT! ?"

Isshin turned his head around from the Masaki poster at hearing the shocking turn of events only to meet the sole of a shoe implanting his head in the wall. Luckily, as Isshin had '+10 shoe and wall resistance' built up from certain earlier wall shattering events that day that involved a certain midnight-haired daughter basically playing hopscotch on the back of his head with her foot.

He grabbed Ichigo's leg by his thighs, and pulled his entire son's body forward into a crushing headbutt, knocking Ichigo back. However, Isshin wasn't effected by it in the least.

"How's that son? This what you get for being late for supper! 7'oclock means 7'oclock. That just now was **Chōhigezutsuki**(超ヒゲ頭突き,_"Super Stubble Headbutt"_)! I finally gave it a name-GUAHH!" he shouted as his mouth was suddenly being filled with Ichigo's punch.

"I don't know what you and Rukia are talking about me being late, because it's only..." he began preparing another punch. "**4:50**!" yelled Ichigo. Isshin blocked the punch and both began matching each other in a fury of blows.

"What the? ! 4:50? What is a hot-blooded teenager doing in the house at _4:50 PM_? What are you supposed to be? A reptile! ? Get out the house you sorry excuse for a testosterone overdosed male and take my third daughter somewhere nice! But you better be back by 7'oclock for dinner or else! You know the rules! Rules are rules! **Isshin Flying Double Knee** (一心・フライング・ダビル・ニー, _Isshin Furaingu Daburu Nī_)!" shouted Isshin as he jumped in the air with both his knees raised up to attack Ichigo..

"Shut it already you psycopath!" yelled Ichigo, who dodged the attack. The fight went over near the door that goes into the Kurosaki clinic.

With this the two began what has been called their so called 'bonding time' by Karin of sparring before dinner. Though they were doing it a little early today. The unwritten law said their fight had to last until right before dinner where Yuzu had to forcefully break them up, so this fight would last a while if dinner were to start at the normal time of 7 o'clock. The tension had been building up since Isshin's 'wall extraction' earlier that day.

"Play nice you two!" shouted Rukia in her 'schoolgirl voice', before walking over towards the couch when she noticed all the water on the floor and the reconstructed vase(thanks to Yuzu).

_"This is the vase they were going on about?" _She thought before she noticed the Chappy visage and ears and her eyes turned to saucers.

"W-Why is this-Ichigo likes Chappy? ! HA! I KNEW IT! No one can resist the cute, cuddl-" before she was interrupted by Karin's impassive observation which soon turned to a smirk. Thus causing Rukia to blush furiously in embarrassment that she had so greatly broke out of her 'schoolgirl' character.

"Don't be so embarrassed Rukia-nee. Your Chappy addiction is second knowlegde. Yuzu loves the guy too, so that's probably why you guys get along so well. Anyway, I'm going to let Ichi-nii explain this vase thing himself."

Yuzu came over with paper towels to finally wipe up the water.

"Hey Rukia-nee I'm so glad you're back. Are any of you and Onii-chan's other friends coming over again like last time?"

"Probably not. They'll most likely come over in the morning to mess with Ichigo to get him to do something he doesn't like," she said as if it were the most normal everyday occurence in the world.

"Hmmm? They'll be intruding on dad's morning 'wake-up call' time if that's the case. That should be interesting," said Karin with geniune intrigue." The other shinigami were so entertaining to her.

"Knowing my brother, he'll be pretty prompt. So we can still fit in Ojisan's sneak attack on Ichigo somewhere in there," continued Rukia.

"Your brother's here too? And he'll be early too with everyone else? That'll make for a grumpy strawberry," remarked Karin causing Rukia and Yuzu to laugh. She began drinking out one of the juice boxes she took out the cabinet.

_"She opened it so easily, what technique!" _thought Rukia with amazed eyes on the juice box. It had taken her forever just to get the straw off the back of the box back when she first went to Karkura High School with Ichigo.

Meanwhile, Yuzu remembered something important.

"Hey Karin...,"

"Hmm," she responded while sucking the liquid through the straw.

"Where's Tōshirō?"

Karin borderline gagged on the gulp of grape juice she just half-swallowed.

"He just went up with you to our room and never came back down. What's he doing up there?" asked Yuzu with curiosity as she made to go upstairs.

Karin however was good at making up lies unlike her 'adopted' shinigami sister.

"I told him to stay up there until I came back, because you guys are the definition of embarrasing. I just came down here to get some snacks anyway, but stupid dad distracted me so I totally forgot about him,"

"Sounds fishy," Yuzu's blunt words pierced through Karin's stomach almost knocking her over. In reality she just didn't want Yuzu to see Tōshirō's gigai that she had stuffed under her small twin bed and think she had committed a new trope called "Lover's Homicide"(variant of lover's suicide).

When he had left, Karin's headache caused by hollow spiritual pressure was so intense, that she hadn't even noticed he had popped some kind of candy in his mouth and left behind the gigai until he was already gone. She could swear the gigai was still breathing though for some reason. It was creepy.

"Hitsugaya-taichou in our room? What's he doing _here_? This I have to see," said Rukia imagining Tōshirō sitting on Yuzu's pink bedspread.

"_Maybe I can sell the pictures to the Shinigami Woman's Association," _thought Rukia taking out her patented Chappy camera.

It was true she had mainly stayed out of the infamous mischievous organization of woman shinigami, but once Yachiru had built multiple tunnels and a secret room right in the Kuchiki manor, she had started secretly attending the meetings just to give her something to do.

Apparently, the fight had at some point moved on closer towards the stairs as Ichigo roundhouse kicked Isshin into the kitchen.

"What? That guy's still here! ? What's he doing in your room Karin," yelled Ichigo. Although he had subtly acknowledged Tōshirō as a good fit for Karin earlier***; something Karin herself had realized while talking to said captain himself, right now Ichigo was in full battle mode with a one track mind, and that happened to somehow include over protective brother. Everything else went out the window. Plus he did wonder why the captain was still here.

At that, Karin had snapped. "None of your business!"

"The heck it isn't!" responded Ichigo swinging his head around.

At this, Isshin abruptly did a Kip-up in the kitchen, and launched toward Ichigo horizontally in the air feet first, causing Ichigo to block with only his arms in a shield gesture.

"Ichigo! You were off guard! And Tōshirō-kun is providing an example of hot-blooded teenager-dom. Follow in his footsteps my son!"

"I'm going to have to pound some sense into you! What kind of father practically jumps for joy at his daughter bringing home some random boys!" he shouted echoing Karin's earlier sentiment.

"He's not some random boy!" shouted Karin contradicting her previous statement she made before she had gone up to her room. She didn't realize that she had though. It's just for some reason, it felt wrong hearing somebody else say it. Must be the teenage rebelliousness in her mixed with some variant of reverse psychology.

"And he's just a frien-!" she said but another voice cut her off.

"Kurosaki, quit talking about me, you keep making me sneeze. I thought I was going crazy because I actually thought _I _was catching a cold," said a voice at the top of the stairs making his own inside joke.

Karin almost caught whiplash as she jerked her neck to loo up at the stairs in shock. The mood in the room instantly changed as all eyes were on Tōshirō who was back in his gigai.

"Oh? Kurosaki, Vice Captain Kuchiki. I thought I sensed you guys here," he said stepping down.

"When did you get bac-I mean-uh-," she trailed off at a loss for words causing Tōshirō to smirk. He was quite pleased with getting more ammo for inevitable future banter contests.

"Come on, let's go," said Tōshirō finishing his decent.

"G-go where?" she said, as she finished regaining her composure.

"And wait a second! I told you to call me by first name! There's four people in this house named Kurosaki!"

Tōshirō chose to ignore that last statement. "What do you mean 'go where'? It's only **4:57**. You told me dinner starts at 7:00 when you literally dragged me here against my will right? That's about two whole hours to do what you talked about. What kind of person wants to stay inside for the night so early?" reasoned the tenth division captain unintentionally channeling Isshin's previous sentiment.

The father of the Kurosaki family and Yuzu were streaming tears on the sidelines at this comment. Ichigo had tick marks forming, only to be subdued by Rukia's foot.

"Yeah let's go, I have some more questions to ask anyway, come on I know the spot!" said Karin making to drag Hitsugaya by his tie from his school uniform. He raised his hand up to stop her from completing this pet peeve of an action, causing Karin to grab his hand instead as she made to pull him out the door. Yet they were interupted.

"Hey, what kind of questions? ! Just what are you planning on telling her? ! At least tell us where you're goi-Mhmmm!" yelled Ichigo whose mouth was being covered by hands that weren't Rukia's which freaked him out. He was sure he felt something _soft _on the back of his head as well.

"Don't you worry about a thing Ichigo, as official overseer of the captain's social life (_and as acting photographer of the Shinigami Woman's Association_), I'll be the _'adult supervision' _on this date of his," said a smug voice.

Hitsugaya was struggling to keep his cool at this intrusion.

"Matsumoto. I told you to go back to Inoue Orihime's house if you were done fighting hollows. It's...," he said turning around, "It's YOUR turn to write the report! All by yourself!"

Karin simply leaned on the wall to watch the fireworks. For such a cold guy, it was easy to get under his skin and fire him up, if you pressed the right buttons. Ammo for future banter session? Definitely.

"Aw, but captain, it's so boring there. Orihime's out training with Chad and Uryū, while everyone else is still mooching at Urahara's. It's sickening really. No work ethic at all," said Rangiku causing Tōshirō to effectively be drenched in sweatdrops.

Ichigo however had a depressing aura around him as he was now huddled with is back turned in a corner in a near fetal position from a lot of different reasons. One of them was being reprimanded by Rukia for Matsumoto's recent "action".

"Rangiku-san, for some reason I feel even worse letting you supervise them, than if they were on their own," moaned Ichigo.

"Oh Ichigo, you and the captain are so cruel," sighed Rangiku in feigned sorrow.

A bursting energetic aura surrounded a certain father in the room.

"Responsible-Adult-Figure!" he shouted in a dramatic pointing pose addressing Rangiku.

"_This _Kurosaki patriarch hereby grants you official 'Adult supervisor-chaperon-chan/sama' status!"

Up untill Isshin had interjected, Karin was tryng to calm Tōshirō from a meltdown, but once again Isshin foiled her plans.

"She's '_responsible''? _But you don't even know her name you nutcase! Let alone where she came from" shouted an incredulous Karin.

"Ooooh! Parental approval from the father of the daughter! So it's official then! Let's go you two lovebirds!" she said with cipher enthusiasm at messing with the two.

_"Also I need to talk with you privately later 'fukutaicho'_,_" _said Isshin psychically through and incantation-less Bakudo 77: **Tenteikūra** (天挺空羅, _Heavenly Void Net_)

"_I'd expect nothing less 'Captain',_" responded Rangiku with a smirk, all without looking directly at him, and keeping her mocking gaze on Hitsugaya.

The 10th squad vice captain had followed him after they finished fighting hollows just earlier. He told her to go away, but she didn't, and he didn't stop her, so why not follow him? He had obviously been hiding something. Her gigai with her Gikon, Momone had gotten inside of Karin and Yuzu's room the same way she, Ikkaku, Renji, and Yumichika had gotten into Ichigo's room before. Through the ceiling light. All she had to do was phase though the outside wall of the house while still in shinigami form, and get back in her gigai. Tracing her captain's reiatsu downstairs and eavesdropping on the conversation before making her move, covering her reiatsu and presence with bakudo kido and appearing behind Ichigo. All too easy.

"And another thing," said Karin ignoring Rangiku's comment with a smirk, as she turned to leave. "Keep messing with Ichigo all you want Dad."

"Huh? What do you mea-," Isshin began genuinely confused, but was interrupted.

"No seriously, he's so sad that he'll need all the help he can get. You can even mess with me all you want, but if you really want to look into somebody's love life, It's Yuzu's. Let's just say she doesn't go shopping at Urahara's all the time because of the great bargains and to play the sad face game with Ururu-chan or have tea parties with Tessai-san."

"BE QUIET! K-Karin-chan!" yelled Yuzu who was now beet red, her eyes closed in embarrassment. She hadn't really seriously thought about the red haired boy that way until now because of Karin words messing with her mind, so it wasn't because she actually liked _him _and wanted to keep it a secret, but just that Karin had called her out in front of everybody.

Tōshirō seemed to miss this little altercation. His eyes were closed in irritation. He was still stuck on a previous subject.

"It's not a 'date' Matsumoto, get it staight." Of course she wasn't going to get it straight.

He didn't want to just tell what he planned to tell Karin with her twin sister in the vicinity who didn't know what shinigmai were, but the sudden appearance of Rangiku had sort of thrown that precedent out of the window. How were they going to explain her to Yuzu. How did she get inside anyway? ! She was even in a gigai. For now they had to abort the concept of staying in that house for even one more second before it was too late. Matsumoto would pay dearly later.

"Kurosaki, let's get out of he-...Kurosaki!" yelled Tōshirō chasing after Karin outside the driveway who had ditched him.

"You weren't getting my cues so I left! And I don't respond to 'Kurosaki'. Plus I didn't want you to complain about me 'dragging' you everywhere again. Just follow me if you can keep up '_Captain_'." Matsumoto had just given Karin alot more banter ammo, and Tōshirō knew it with that quip of her's just now.

"Tch. Where are we going?" asked Tōshirō, before he was kicked in the face with a soccer ball she had picked up in her driveway.

"Don't get an attitude, and where else?" responded Karin with a smile as she turned her head back around leaving Tōshirō to look at her retreating form before he sped up to run beside her.

* * *

><p>OMAKE:<p>

"The Chessmasters"

**10:54 PM**

It was a dark and stormy night. Yuzu had gotten up and walked past Karin's bed where she was sleeping out cold. Then she walked past Rukia's empty bed(she was in Ichigo's closet as usual).

She walked down the hall, and got to the stairs, but she could heard murmurs from Ichigo's room. Hmm. To eavesdrop or not to eavesdrop. No that's for another time. Plus she was admittedly not stealthy at all since both she and Isshin had been caught before on the day Ichigo had first brought Rukia home. It was then that she gave the reason why she had to stay with the Kurosaki's****.

She tip-toed down the stairs, went past the little living room area, past the kitchen, and to the opening to the clinic. Opening the door, she walked inside and went into the waiting room.

"You can stop hiding...Otousan." It was always harder to get to Yuzu compared to Ichigo and Karin. Those two were so easy. He managed to get to Yuzu is a way today with showing Karin the easel with Yuzu's handwriting on it, but that was still too weak. Plus Isshin didn't really want to get to Yuzu anyway. She was different than her sibblings.

"Ah clever as always Yuzu."

"Today was a big day otousan," she said making a fist, and setting up some things for the clinic the next day.

"I'll say. This was the biggest advancement so far. And an entire new foundation has opened up."

"Oh yeah, speaking of that, bring the easel over here please otousan," asked Yuzu as Isshin did just that.

All the plans and schemes that were scribbled on there were still there.

Yuzu walked up to it and flipped the board around on the back side, where there was more writing. This time, all in Yuzu's handwriting.

"It's about time this comes out of pre-production. I was thinking it would never happen...well any time soon at least," said Yuzu with a knowing smile.

"Like I said Yuzu, the foundation has finally been laid for this to move into Phase 1."

"Yeah. We'll continue on full steam with Operation Ichi/Ruki, and start full blast on Operation Karin!Romance!"

"Isn't that the tentative title? This is your personal project after all Yuzu-chan."

"Huh? Oh yeah, ok, so now we need an _official_ name. I've actually been thinking about that since earlier.***** Um... yeah how about...Operation Hitsu...Karin. HitsuKarin. Yeah, there we go," she said erasing the old name, and writing the new title in cursive.

"Good thing Karin-chan didn't see this side of the board huh?" she said in a yawn.

"Aww~," she yawned. "I'm going back to bed otousan. I only got up to set up my station in here for tomorrow anyway."

"Yeah, the clinic's been busy lately. Alright Yuzu-chan. Goodnight."

He looked at her as she left. "_Even her," _he thought cryptically. All his kids were growing up so fast. They weren't the same little kids that they were when the hollow attacked their house and Rukia gave Ichigo her powers. No. Things were different now.

With Yuzu gone, Isshin could do something he had been wanting to do for a couple hours now. He picked up the phone and dialed a number. It rang and then somebody answered on the 3rd dial.

"Moshi-moshi?" said the voice.

"Hey Kisuke. I hear you're converting the old shop into a motel," joked Isshin at referencing Urahara's multiple shinigami 'visitors'.

"Oh heeeey Isshin. What's up. I got the feeling you don't like me much anymore since you never call!" said Urahara, his goofy voice not wavering a bit even in the late night. Then again, the guy was practically nocturnal after all. There's a reason you never see him during the day. Always working on inventions late at night and whatnot.

"You say that every time we talk Kisuke. I stay away from you because you always want to fight me or something now that I have my powers back. Anyway here's the real reason I called. If my sources are correct, then we'll be in contact much more often," he began with smugness in his voice.

"Oh that hurt Isshin. Making it seem you just called to talk to me just to drop the _real _reason." However hurt he was, Urahara was intrigued with this new topic of Isshin's. The man never failed to entertain Urahara with his antics, and so he always tried to return the favor.

"Yup, now listen. What's the name of that red-haired kid again?"

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong>

Chatper Started: Dec 24th, 2011 10:58 AM EST  
>Chapter Finished: Dec 24th, 2011, 9:35 PM EST<p>

Revisions: Dec 25th, 2011, 8:22 AM EST  
>New Revisions: July 4th, 2012, 7:34 PM EST<p>

Basically I was bored, so I wrote this whole thing on a whim. It entertained me so. This story was originally supposed to be a one-shot, but I made a two-shot because I can(that's a good reason). This isn't beta'd or revised because I'm too sleepy right now to do so myself. The named attacks Isshin does are actually canon and in the Bleach databooks. lol Well besides the "Super Daddy-Isshin tip-toe getaway technique©". I made that one up based off of another actual handstand technique he did. **Also, I just realized the Japanese characters won't show up for Isshin't attacks because of the site's formatting. Sorry about that.**

I made tons of references to the canon manga, anime, and even the omakes in the anime(shinigami women association anyone?). I hope I'm not the only one than can catch them. I usually am.

*-Karin actually says Yuzu thinks of Ichigo as an anime character in the actual manga.  
>**-Karin remembers the name of the technique because Isshin did a similar handstand technique back when they went to visit Masaki's memorial in the 'Memories In the Rain' chapters and episodes.<br>***-Last chapter a clear-headed Ichigo acknowledged Tōshirō in a subtle gesture that Karin didn't even realize he made until she was in her room. This was demonstrated last chapter if you didn't notice.  
>****-Remember when Rukia made up the sob story to the Kurosakis so they would let her stay. Before that, Isshin and Yuzu were snooping on Ichigo's door while Rukia was inside. Karin of course ruined their invasion of privacy back then which alerted Ichigo of their presence prompting Rukia to come out and tell her story in the first place.<br>*****-Yuzu was thinking about the 'official name' in chapter one, but it's sort of hinted at.

I also realized I never explained the title 'To the Chagrin'. Basically, in the first chapter everyone said embarrassing stuff. Each to Tōshirō's, and Karin's chagrin. This chapter, a lot more people got embarrassed. Thus, 'To everyone's chagrin'


	4. To Their Chagrin 2

I've said it a million times, but this story was supposed to just be a one-shot. But since then it's become the story I randomly update whenever I'm bored. I hope you guys don't take this storyline seriously. You can critique if you want of course, but this is basically a crackfic. I don't even know what the heck I'm writing and when I re-read the chapters they actually scare me lol. These comedy chapters write themselves anyways so it's not like I'm using time I could be using to write chapters for my main Bleach story, **The Princess and the Tiger****.  
><strong>  
>I'm sure everybody read last chapter's omake segment which took place in the late night of the last chapter. But the opening of this chapter takes place in the <strong>same day, hours earlier<strong> starting off before dinner time which as everybody knows, is at a specific time and sacred in the Kurosaki household. The omake also had hints to possible important plot points if I decide to keep randomly updating this story. **Oh and did I mention this story includes time skipped Karin and Yuzu. **It wasn't clear in the first chapter since I wasn't intending this to be a multi-chapter fic, but Rukia's short hair-cut and being called vice-captain last chapter should have gave it away. Back then was when I decided this plotline was post-timeskip on a whim since the first chapter was vague enough to allow me to do so. This chapter I will fully clarify it.

The story is unbeta'd. Any grammatical mistakes, send them to me in a review so I can fix them for you. :) Enjoy.

* * *

><p>'To their Chagrin 2'<br>-

Dinner for Who?

**6:55 PM**

"Y-You sore loser!" shouted Karin at finally turning around only to see the retreating form of the tenth division captain's back.

"Don't know what you're talking about Kurosaki." Sweat embalmed them both as the sun continued to set.

"Stop trying to run away, get back here! What do you mean you 'dunno'? You got mad that I was about to win and freakishly kicked my soccer ball probably to the moon or something and now you're actually trying to play it off!"

"I'm not 'running' away, I'm clearly walking," he said without turning around to face Karin, "And I already told you I'm sorry Kurosaki. This gigai has more power than a normal human body," he explained. Truthfully Karin wasn't that far off.

_"When I played with her over a year ago with her friends, she was good, but not this good. How was she even keeping up with me? She's just a human. My gigai is physically superior to a human's body, but I almost had to come out in shinigami form to keep up. Maybe it's because gigais are so constricting to us that we can't properly use them comfortably. And her seeping reiatsu into her kicks has only gotten worse,"_thought Tōshirō remembering how Karin would kick soccerballs at hollows to kill them.

"Gigai? That's the name of the type of body you're in right now right? Alright so how come when you left it to go fight hollows earlier that thing was still breathing? !"

"I put in my soul candy so that the artificial soul inside of it, named 'King' could take over while I fought the hollows."

"Eh? 'Candy?' Gikongan? 'Artificial soul' like a Gikon? W-wait, so why didn't it do anything or talk or anything? I had to stash that thing under my bed and pray Yuzu didn't come up and think I killed you or something. We didn't need bad shoujo plots to come to life for her sake."

"What's up with all the questions? How should I know?" complained Tōshirō squinting his eyes closed in the way Karin made fun of him for.

Among many other situational purposes, the gikons were made to get to safety while a shinigami went and fought hollows. When creating his specific brand of soul candy though, the twelfth division might have over-enunciated the 'flight' part of King's 'fight or flight' functions.

"King is pretty…no _extremely_ paranoid about doing what he feels are potentially risky things. I mean, you _are _a risky person to be around," finished Tōshirō.

"Hey, I can't help that I attract those hollows!"

"Well that's not really what I meant, but there's that too."

Karin chose to ignore that statement and question it later.

"So let me get this, straight. Your…weirdo Gikon was so terrified of me..that it played dead?" said Karin incredulously.

"Yeah, that sounds about like King's behavior. Usually he tries to stay away from dangerous things, but you were already there in the first place. Though it's more extreme then what he usually does. Usually he assess the probability of risk in any little situation and acts off of it. Matsumoto has one too named Momone. I'm actually thinking she used Momone to sneak her gigai into your house back there while she came in and merged back into it. That's when she appeared out of nowhere," thought Tōshirō in annoyance realizing the extent of Matsumoto's schemes. Speaking of schemes…..

"MATSUMOTO. Quit taking pictures!"

"But captain, I've been sent to chaperone this date! Karin-chan, the captain's a dangerous man you know," complained a smug Rangiku on top of the roof of a nearby house.

"IT'S NOT A **DATE**!" Karin and Tōshirō exclaimed in unison.

"Matsumoto the only thing we're in danger of is you! And we both know you used Karin's father's…'approval'," he shuddered at the word, "Just to take bad your quality pictures for the Shinigami Woman's Association!" He said the association's name with comedic abhorrence.

"Well, I mean come on, the sports section of our insider edition magazine that I was assigned doesn't write itself you know! And with this I get pictures of the captain, his girlfriend, and both them playing together. It's not just the sports section, but implied romance as well which is the best type of romance! With that, I'm intruding in Soi-fon's dirty section! It doesn't get much better tha-"

"Kurosaki," said Tōshirō as Rangiku continued rambling on with jubilee.

"….." A silence was heard from Karin.

"Oh, fine! _'Karin_'_!_" asked Tōshirō finally turning around wearing a scowl and earning a smile from Karin.

"There we go. Now, that's more like it. Now I'll do one for you. 'Yes? _Captain Hitsugaya_?" Tōshirō deadpanned at this before holding his hand out..

"Shut up and give me the soccer ball so I can kick Matsumoto off the roof already." to which Karin made an equally blank face and pointed towards the sky with her free hand on her hips.

"Huh?"

"Moon."

"Hmm? Oh ok..ok I get i-..WAIT _not _ok! What are you talking about! ?"

"You kicked it to the MOON remember," said Karin in a defiant tone crossing her arms.

"WHA-? ! M-Maybe down a couple blocks, but not to the moon! That's impossible."

"Then go get it back! That was my personal ball! You think I'm buying that gigai excuse? I was about to win and you kicked it away you sore loser!"

"Yoo-hoo!" came Rangiku's voice piercing through the speech bubbles of their conversation. Both turned around to see Rangiku coming out of her gigai. "I~~I'd hate to interrupt the lover's quarrel, but it's 6:58. Two minutes till dinner you two,"

Suddenly Rangiku's gigai rose up its head. "Yeah, so take responsibility brat-captain and get the floozy girl to dinner on time!"

Rangiku had follow-up dialogue for this, "If not we'll be forced to as chaperone's to give a bad report for staying out past your date curfew!"

"Psssssst, Rangiku-sama, you can't just make up the term 'date-curfew'," said Momone out the side of her mouth with an uncharacteristic scowl on Rangiku's face.

"Come'on Momone, just go with it!" whispered Rangiku before yelling, "See ya' around captain!" as she flashed away with shunpo leaving Momone awkwardly standing there. Quickly she did a back-flip and disappeared behind the back of the house she was standing on.

Was that Rangiku's Gikon…wait a sec did that thing just call her a floozy? !

"Oh well, beardo's just gonna have to deal with it because we're gonna be no-shows," said a fuming Karin walking the opposite direction back towards the playing field."

"Huh? Are you sure. Your father seems like he'll be the dramatic type for you to miss dinner."

"Eh, not like I'll get grounded or anything, and if he does anything annoying I'll just punch him in the face like usual."

_"Like usual," _echoed Tōshirō in his thoughts while sweatdropping.

"Besides, you have a job to do of going to get my soccer ball," reminded Karin causing Tōshirō to slump. "Fine whatever," he responded. He actually had no idea how far he had slide-tackle-kicked it in desperation to stop Karin from scoring the winning goal.

"But you're missing the main point too. Or have you forgotten completely? I originally dragged you to my house to talk about Shinigami and hollow stuff! My crazy family got in the way so we ran to my room. Then I said how Rangiku explained a lot to me already, but that I wanted to know more….to even possibly become a shinigami or at least learn to protect myself from hollows. But as if on cue, the stupid hollows got in the way and you had to go fight them. So since you were taking a while I absentmindedly went downstairs where my family basically flash mob-ambushed me and then everything else happened," she explained remembering all the incidents leading up to the obligatory Isshin-Ichigo pre-dinner duel, Tōshirō's return, and Rangiku's crashing of the whole scene.

"And now we've finally escaped from _that_ to have our conversation, even Rangiku is gone, and you actually want to go _back_?" questioned Karin as if Tōshirō was insane. Just clinically insane though.

The white haired captain simply smiled. "I never said I wanted to go back did I?" to which Karin grinned. Suddenly Tōshirō's smile horrifically morphed before her eyes into smugness.

"You know, it's just that you get so embarrassed easily earlier I was wondering if you skipping dinner _and _'staying out with me' would be worth all the hassle your family would give you."

Karin literally had a pre-scripted response ready for this.

"Oh so it's come back to this! We already had this conversation back in my room, that _you _were the one most embarrassed by Yuzu accusations and Ichigo's hassling.

"'Embarrased' and 'Annoyed'. Two different words Kurosaki," responded Tōshirō. He was ahead of the game on this round two of the bantering sessions.

"…"

"…"

"Shut up, and let's go find the ball. You have plenty of time to explain everything 'till we do. That's the only reason I'm coming with you, otherwise you'd be finding it yourself."

Currently they were in the bottom of the Mashiba District at Karakura Community Park. This was the place she had always come to play soccer since her elementary school had also been in this district. Currently she attended Mashiba Middle School just as Ichigo had. This location was good though as only one district separated it from where she lived near the top of the Minamikawase District. The park's location was a far cry from Yumisawa Children's Park which was to the north on the other side of town. Kids from the bordering Naruki City even went there.

So how can one explain why Tōshirō and Karin ended up here a whole two districts away from Mashiba in the midst of a conversation. Technically three districts away if you include Mashiba since they were originally near the bottom of it.

"So like I said, after getting information from Rangiku, I started going to Urahara for a while for this hollow problem during the time Ichigo lost his powers; even before then actually around about right after what I now realize in retrospect were the first formal arrancar attacks."

_"Willingly going to Urahara Kisuke's. That doesn't bode well."_

"And?" questioned Tōshirō further.

Suddenly Karin did her version of a pout (which was a hybridized with a scowl). It was way different than Yuzu's more juvenile pout, but Tōshirō could still see the family resemblance to her twin sister after all. Especially since again, she resembled Ichigo's scowl, but the last time he told her so back in her room she nearly flipped out. Now she sighed.

"I think he either doesn't take me seriously or just like to mess with me, or both. Since pluses follow me around 24/7, he always gives me all sorts spirit-repellant type stuff for free even though I'd rather pay him. He calls it 'paying off a debt'. And then recently there's the bootleg, limited edition, off-brand looking anti-hollow test-phase merchandise." complained Karin.

"Despite their horrible campy packaging, Urahara actually has a reputation for _mildly _respectable products…..most of the time," joked Tōshirō.

Urahara's blunt presence (despite the ever so humble appearance of his shop) in the human world had been an elephant in the room for the Seireitei for a while. To the point where they knew he was there, and even shinigami stopped by there for supplies somehow smuggled from soul society (coughYoruichicough) while stationed somewhere in the living world during the near hundred years of his exile. Once Aizen's plot came out of the shadows however it allowed all the formerly in exile warriors (Visored included) to reveal themselves formally. Tōshirō had met the former twelfth division captain some time during the opening stages of the winter war, but never really got close to him as his workers like Ikkaku and Yumichika and especially Renji did.

"Yeah, I mean the products worked," she said remembering with annoyance her 'beta-testing' of the goofy can of Hollow Spray ™ that actually brought down a scary looking hollow out of the air like a can of brand name bug spray, causing comical damage to a nearby building before it ran away, "But it's just that he always had a way of dodging the big questions. Whatever he did answer was like a vague outline of what happened. I know the shinigami faced a big threat and my brother helped and Karakura Town was involved somehow. He wasn't even that specific, but I put the pieces together myself. And I now remember when the hollow attacked our house that Rukia-nee was involved too. Before it was like my memory of that was changed or something," she said as Tōshirō listened on.

"When I told him I wanted to be a shinigami like Ichigo, the guy literally tried to wave me away with his fan. No matter how much I beat up Jinta on an hourly basis or threaten to say bad things about him to my sister, he won't budge. And neither will Ururu-chan for that matter! I ask her and she with _no subtlety at all _justturns around and starts whistling with that same sad expression on her face the entire time! Tessai is just kind of scary, and the talking black cat Yoruichi can actually use shunpo!"

Tōshirō smirked at Karin's telling of her antics with the Urahara crew. "Sounds just like an Urahara reaction to wave his fans," said Tōshirō stopping. "Fine then, why don't I start from the beginning. Or at last what I know happened here first," he began.

He told Karin how Rukia had been stationed in Karakura, hurt by the hollow, and illegally gave Ichigo her shinigami powers, but lost all of them instead of the intended half she meant to transfer. He told everything that he was aware of that happened after that. Then he got to how Soul Society went to "retrieve" her, how Ichigo and his friends were sent by Urahara to "rescue her". How, they managed to break in and fight against Soul Society's best, and actually stop her execution. Sosuke Aizen's big reveal of his plans one-hundred plus years in the making which had caused Urahara and co to be exiled, along with people now called the Visored who were like arrancar but dominantly shinigami instead of hollow like arrancar(and how apparently Ichigo during the winter war had the same powers as them), the betrayal of he and two other captains, and the entire build-up and fighting out of the winter war.

Tōshirō told it all in chronological order, from the first arrancar attacks, to Orihime's abduction, to the Final Getsuga Tensho.

"There, you satisfied now? I gave you the way the textbook writers are going to write it for incoming students to the shinigami academy taking the obligatory history class," said Tōshirō sarcastically with his hands in his pockets. The sun had long since gone down.

Karin hadn't talked during his entire explanation, since interrupting people with more questions in the middle of explanations seems to do more harm than good.

"Yeah, thanks this helps a lot! I-I think understand everything now," said a wide-eyed Karin getting a much better timeline of events in better context, before a scowl returned on her face.

"I don't see why the heck stupid Urahara or even Ichigo or Rukia-nee who were basically the main characters in the beginning, couldn't tell me this stuff!"

"Who knows. Maybe you did so for Ichigo, but I don't recall you saying you ever asked Vice-captain Kuchiki. Maybe you can ask them why they didn't yourself since we're almost at your place," said Tōshirō.

That's when it hit her. They had walked completely around the town. From Mashiba, north up to Yumisawa, southwest to the district where Urahara Shoten was at, further south past the railroad tracks to the remains of the Sukari Building, then going eas-Wait, why the heck did they even go down there? Where they actually _trying_ to head to the town where the summer fireworks festival was always held? ! Mashiba and the Community Park was north of here, and Tōshirō had kicked the ball north from there. Sigh.

From there they had gone eastward straying away from the railroad tracks past the general area where Tatsuki said Orihime had lived. When going past there Karin had remembered Matsumoto saying they were staying there and questioned why she didn't sense the vice captain there, or anywhere for that matter. _"Hmm. She must've gone to Naruki City or something. She did say it was boring since Orihime is apparently training with Chad and Ishida-san somewhere," _Karin had thought at the time. Currently speaking they were passing by the supermarket, and entering the district where she lived, crossing over a little walking bridge that went over the Karasu River.

"Woah you're right Tōshirō we are almost home? Why did we go all the way around town! ?"

"You're the one who wanted to hear the story, I was stalling so we didn't get to your house so fast and where I'd get interrupted mid-story by your brother who'd probably slew some more psuedo-death threats at me for keeping you out so late, and where your father would probably praise me for that exact reason," Karin did a shudder at this, "So I just wanted to explain everything all at once."

Karin was still stuck on certain former details. "Woah you're right! All the extra time past seven o'clock we've been out is like build-up time for those psychos. The longer we stay the worse it'll be!" she exclaimed thinking about all the 'praise' Tōshirō would receive from her dad.

"I thought you said you'd just punch your father in the head 'like normally'? quoted Tōshirō.

"You don't understand, I didn't think we'd come back this late! Do you know what time it is? It's night time," she said changing into a overly dramatic sinister look, "**and they're stronger at night Tōshirō**."

"Oh really? Well then, I'll take your word for it, but hold on, this is me disregarding everything you just said for like five minutes," he said popping in his gikongan. Karin's smugness had uncharacteristically sort of rubbed off on him. Plus he liked messing with the raven haired Kurosaki. Maybe it was payback for almost beating him in soccer.

"W-WH-WHAT THE, where do you think you're going? !"

"Out," he responded with his back to Karin before disappearing in a flash.

Karin wore blank expression before screaming "We're already oou-MHMMM!"

Tōshirō's gigai muffled Karin's screams with a hand over her mouth.

"Shhhh!" it said in a nasally voice uncharacteristic of Tōshirō, spraying stray spit on Karin face. "You are too loud. Your voice functions as a hollow call. The probability of a hollow appearing from a hollow call is 96.71 perc-ARGH!"

"Get off of me you crazy Gikon!" yelled Karin breaking free and kneeing the Gikon named King in the stomach, but he dodged by expertly jumping back.

"Eh?" _"More agile than he seems,..hmm what's he doing now," _thought Karin turning from an analytical to a confused expression as King sat down criss-crossed. She really didn't know to do with this thing. Her voice was a 'hollow call' seriously? What are hollows supposed to be, birds? Though considering what Urahara was capable of with his infamous "'Spirit Repellent: Be-Gone X', and other vaguely patented products, a 'hollow call' shouldn't be that far out of the ballpark.

"The probability of my subduing her is approximately -2.21%," spoke King to Karin's instant facial deadpanning, "As such I will commence with the countdown!"

_"Countdown to what! ?"_

"Four minutes and TWENTY-_two_ seconds!",  
>"Four minutes and TWENTY-<em><span>one <span>_seconds!"

Karin eye began twitching. _"…..THIS. ENDS. HERE."_

**Four minutes and twenty seconds later.**

"A-a-and laAsStly…ZzEero seconds," said King falling over unconscious, his pill popping out of the gigai's mouth and rolling on the ground. Karin looked down triumphantly at her work. Even after beating him up for two minutes flat, he truly was diligent in his countdown and continued counting to the end for the last two minutes. At least Karin respected him for that instead of him choosing to run away or something.

"FLASH!" A sound the signaled Tōshirō's arrival behind Karin.

"You're five and a half seconds late Tōshirō," said Karin mocking King's voice with her back to the boy.

"K-Kurosa-What did you do to my gigai!" said the boy in growing horror, the sound of him dropping something went past her ears.

"Eh? My fist sparred with King's face for a while, while you were gone. My fist won," she stated simply, before her eyes widened that she heard the sound of a ball dropping.

"MY SOCCER BALL YOU FOUND IT!"

"MY GIGAI! YOU KILLED IT!"

At this Karin began avidly reaching for the soccer ball only to be repelled by Tōshirō's hand pushing her head back causing her to strain against it. "Ehhhh? You said 'I killed it'? Can you really kill a gigai? I dunno about that, I mean sure King's pill popped out and all but-"

"Kurosaki…" he said darkly.

"Is that supposed to be your 'mad voice'?" she teased only to be answered by rising spiritual pressure.

"Umm. Yeah I'm just gonna go ahead of you now. Make sure you take responsibility and bring that ball, because I have this one!" she shouted, showing off just what she meant as the small ball-like soul candy form of King was in her hand while she ran over the small walking bridge that went over the Karasu river into her district where her family and Tatsuki lived..

_"When did she pick that up? !"_ thought Tōshirō in alarm.

Karin was already across the bridged and four soccer fields away zooming on the way home before a flash was heard in front of her.

"Yeah, because you were going to outrun me right?" said Tōshirō with his gigai on his back.

"Yeeaahh…looking back on it I really should've thought that through some more."

Karin and Tōshirō were almost at the Kurosaki residence. The latter had reluctantly merged back into his gigai.

"So you took King's gikongan to make me follow you? Why? So you don't get ambushed alone once you get home?" questioned Tōshirō with his hands behind his back.

"Something like that?" said Karin looking away.

"If I wanted to go home I could've stayed behind when we passed by the area where Inoue-san's apartment is,"

"But you were still telling me the story at that time, and it wasn't directly in the path we were walking. You were coming back with me to get ambushed no matter what….and uh," she said looking down in front of her, "Sorry about the gigai with the well…possible structural and functional damage and all,"

"It feels extremely weird for me to respond 'no problem' to what you just said Kurosaki," he said switching to a nonchalant tone, "But, I mean now that I'm over the heart-stopping shock of seeing my gigai's nose and arms among other limbs turned in an angles I'm sure is immeasurable by even the highest quality protractor, it's fine. I don't really care about it since gigais are highly durable. It was easy to pop everything back into place, but it's kind of surreal seeing a gigai, which is basically a carbon copy of your physical body, laid out on the ground like they just got run over. Plus gigai's are expensive. They come out of our paycheck you know.

Karin tried to imagine Tōshirō holding a pay stub and it didn't work.

"I'm sorry, but again it was because King has worse OCD than Yuzu! And it's a warped and twisted version of OCD at that. At least Yuzu's is normal and funny, but this thing," she said holding the soul candy form of King.

"When I first led the advance guard here to counter the initial arrancar threat, Matsumoto did the shopping for my gikongan and Vice-captain Kusajishi was the one handing them out. I have no issues with King, but putting those two together in charge of getting my gikongai was a bad combination," he admitted closing his eyes.

"Vice-captain Kusajishi huh? Sounds entertaining. You have to tell me more about the rest of these shinigami, though Rukia-nee said earlier that a bunch of them were at Urahara's. I felt them when we passed by that area and I've met most of them, but some of the pressures I feel are new.'

"Hm. Doesn't your sister do the shopping or something? Just tell her to go there tomorrow."

"Actually she shops there all the time. Good idea Tōshirō-oh we're here," she said coming up to the side door next to the clinic. A different door than the one she had ran out earlier that day.

"It's quiet. Too quiet. And it's dim inside," whispered Karin.

"It's **9:47** Kurosaki."

'That doesn't matter, Beardo is definitely still up. I don't think I've ever seen him sleep actually,"

"That actually explains multiple things," commented Tōshirō dryly.

Whatever those 'things' were Karin didn't get to ask because Tōshirō went straight up to the door and opened it. Before she could protest her eyes widened. The full room lights were off, but one light was on in the kitchen/dining area. As they walked inside they saw the table had been collapsed into a smaller version that could probably only sit two people. The table had been redressed with a red table-cloth. In the middle of the table was a lit candle and on the table itself were two plates of the most delicious food any of them had ever seen. Suddenly out of nowhere Karin heard slow music gradually get louder.

"What is that? ! You hear that right? I'm not crazy?" she yelled looking around.

Normally Tōshirō would at least consider acting like he didn't hear it and verify Karin's fear of insanity as a joke, but he was actually glad somebody besides him heard it as well.

"Yeah, but where is it coming from!"

**"So it seems our guests have finally arrived. After much delay of course."**

**"Yes the famished lovebirds have returned to the nest to roost,"**

At that, both of them went back to back looking for the source of the voices. "Where are you Yuzu, Dad! Stop messing around!" She was beginning to freak out since she couldn't feel what little spiritual pressures they had. Tōshirō had left out his story that Isshin was a shinigami. That was for him to tell her. Still he wondered why the man felt like he had so little spiritual pressure. Yuzu just did naturally.

**"Messing around? But we haven't even begun. And why the confusion. You know we are masters of throwing our voices**" they said in unison.

Suddenly the door slammed behind them and the normal light in the ceiling above it turned on like a spot-light, revealing Isshin and Yuzu with tuxedos and cloths around their arms in a French waiter motif with eyes closed and solemn expressions.

"Welcome," they bowed in unison, expressions unchanging "To 'Restaurant: Kurosaki'."

"…." Karin and Tōshirō were speechless, mouth agape.

"Party of Two?" questioned Yuzu , nose in the air, eyes closed with still the same expression.

"YOU GUYS ARE GOING TOO FAR! And how dare you drag Yuzu off the deep end with you dad! "

"Party of Two it is then," continued Yuzu, writing something down on her clipboard as if for confirmation.

"Yuzu where did you even get a tuxedo! ?"

"Please follow me to your seats," chirped Yuzu.

Tōshirō decided the break his silence nonchalantly "How is it a restaurant if the food is already ordered for us?"

"Because my young man," said Isshin keeping up his maître d act, putting his hand on Tōshirō from behind.

"As our restaurant is open one night only, and only serves one item," he continued holding up one finger for emphasis, "It is this impossible to order anything else,"

"And that _one _item is?" questioned Karin only for Isshin to seeming teleport to her side all without losing his cool, calm, and collected character.

"Whatever our esteemed chef happens to cook. In other words 'dinner'….WHICH YOU HAPPENED TO MISS KARIN-CHAN," he yelled, yanking his cloth off his arm and jumping towards the Masaki poster.

"And so it begins," slumped Karin mid-stride.

"The flawless streak of perfect attendance for supper you instated has been marred by our former little Karin-chan's uncontrollable biochemistry!," he blubbered.

_"'Former little Karin-chan' Wait-Was he talking about hormones at the end there? !" _thought Karin face palming.

"Masaki you must descend come down from the glorious skies above and speak," he gasped, "To your bad seed wayward daughteeeerrrr!"

_"Ignore him Karin. Ignore him Karin," _she thought keeping the mantra going in her head.

"Here you go," said Yuzu pulling two chairs for both Karin and Tōshirō as they both sat down. Yuzu then went to finish washing dishes only to realize Ichigo already did them. He didn't like that Yuzu felt the need to do all the housework alone so he often helped her out with chores now.

"Yuzu, I know you're still 'in character' and all, but I want you to know I actually appreciate this. You didn't have to reheat dinner for me, but you did anyhow. And even though you just assumed as part of your twisted scheme with Dad that Tōshirō was coming back with me for some reason even though he's just a friend from school, I'm actually strangely not mad," her voice raising in pitch in those last couple of words.

"Maybe it's the hunger getting to me. Yeah, I'm just going to go with this and take advantage of the situation and then basically deny this ever happened after I finish eating."

"But you can't deny photo evidence," said a sing-song voice at the steps going upstairs followed by the flash of a camera, making Karin choke mid-swallow.

"Matsumoto, what are you doing here?" yelled Tōshirō with food in his mouth due to being caught off guard. He hadn't sensed her. Had she used Bakudo kido? Then he mentally face palmed. That's how she snuck in the first time!

"Every restaurant needs a waitress," she explained.

"The meal was served before we came in the door Matsumoto! And why aren't you writing the report? !"

"Oh didn't Yuzu-chan tell you? I'm simply here visiting my good friend Rukia-chan!"

_"So that's what you told Yuzu? I'm guessing you made up some crazy reason why you know me too huh?" _thought Tōshirō.

"Well go back up and continue the visiting then, we're trying to eat here."

"Oh, the captain's getting territorial. Wouldn't want to intrude, so see you later," she retreated up the stairs, presumably to Ichigo's room where Rukia probably was also.

Karin noticed Tōshirō's fuming. "Don't worry about it Tōshirō. Do like I do with my problems," she said jutting her thumb towards the still in hysterics Isshin. "Ignore them,"

"Why does that advice sound familiar coming from you Kurosaki?"

"A~~ah," yawned Yuzu over by the sink, as she went over to calm down her father as usual before smiling and saying whimsically, "Must be nice."

* * *

><p>The following omake takes place directly a couple minutes after the one from last chapter. Go back and read it if you forgot what happens.<p>

OMAKE:

"The Chessmasters 2"  
><strong>11:10 PM<strong>

It was late, dark and stormy night, going on early morning. Yuzu had come in and set up her station for use in the clinic the next day, and then she and Isshin had discussed their meta-schemes of pairing up certain individuals together. But after she left, a plan that had started formulating earlier that day had continued formulating even as she went back up to bed. So when Isshin had dialed up Urahara, he had intended to immediately start in the pre-production phase of this scheme.

"Eh Isshin? The 'red-haired kid'? You mean Abarai-san?" he asked jokingly.

"Wha-? No, I mean the kid that works with the girl you built and Tessai!"

"Ah, _him_!" spoke Urahara with feigned surprise, undoubtedly fanning himself with his fans.

"Listen Isshin, if this plan of yours that you called me for is what I think it is, then I have to say I'm surprised you're ready to move this fast. Are you sure the sources you said you have are correct?"

"Why of course. More correct than they can ever be. And for your sake if you want me to keep in contact this time around, you better hope they are," said the man grinning into the phone.

"Oh once again, that hurts Isshin," said Urahara, "And besides, your intended subject is sort of an unchecked variable. I don't think _he _will be a good subject to use in one of your schemes."

"Kisuke are you actually being…'fatherly'? You don't want him growing up too fast," joked Isshin.

"Why that's not the case at all. I'm not his father after all. And although people can be 'fatherly' without being fathers, I merely said that about him because with the way he is, there's no way it'll work or last," retorted Kisuke with a laugh.

"Rest assured, I can _indirectly_ amend that situation, since if I did it directly, it would be against the rules. So to make things interesting, care to place a bet on it then," dared Isshin.

"But my friend, the bet has already been made," said Kisuke on the other line fanning himself.

"And?"

"If I win, we have a little test-spar," said the now happy man.

"Ha! And If I win,*whisper-whisper," said Isshin whispering into the phone. After a long pause was taken place one could hear an "Oh you're on Isshin!" coming from the phone.

"Yeah it'll be just like old times," responded Ichigo's father.

"Now Isshin, I'd hate to hold you up any longer, but I am hoping you did not forget the pre-planned events to take place tomorrow,"

"How could I forget? There was a reason after all when you first answered the phone when I asked 'Are you turning the old shop into a motel?'.'

"Yeah, I figured as such, but just want to make sure you know."

"Tomorrow has been weeks in the making," answered Isshin.

"Yes, weeks," echoed Kisuke..

"Remember, bright and early Kisuke. No oversleeping!"

"Wouldn't _**dream **_of it," joked the shopkeeper to the groans he heard on the other line, "Oh and Yoruichi-san might be involved if she returns,"

By the way Kisuke added '–san' to the end of her name, Isshin guessed the Shihōin princess was in her cat morph form.

"Oh great! She'll definitely _enhance _the situation," said Isshin grinning deviously.

*Camera pans outside the house and into the sky*  
>*Cue eerie music and cut to end credits*<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong>

Chatper Started: July 4th, 2012 7:04 AM EST  
>Chapter Finished: July 4th, 2012, 8:00 PM EST<br>Revisions: N/A

Again, I updated because I felt like it. This story is just a side story that was originally supposed to be a crackfic one-shot. For your own sakes don't wait on an update any time soon at all. Notice the status of this story has not said 'in progress', but 'complete' since the publishing of the first chapter. If I do update, it will be at a completely random time, just like my publishing of this chapter is. lol

I was glad to write a scenes with Rangiku and Tōshirō's ginkon's as well. The Bleach manga only touched on King in the omake sketches in the Bleach volumes. And Momone got canon screen time, but no dialogue. After writing scenes with them in my main story 'The Princess and the Tiger', I felt like delving into their characters for just a brief scene or two once again, but this was not the reason I wrote the chapter. I added both of them in separately and totally on different whims.

**Quick trivia:** The sub-title, 'Dinner for Who' is a play on the phrase 'Dinner for Two.' Karin didn't want to go to dinner, she was like 'Dinner for who? Pfft. I'm not going to that!' and then she and Tōshirō ended up eating dinner together anyways.

The blank expression Karin made when pointing at the sky and saying "moon" was partly inspired by Luffy pointing at the sky and saying "sky" in the Skypiea Arc of One Piece(it truthfully was just coincidence that I wrote Karin pointing up at the sky with a blank expression before I remembered Luffy did the same thing, so the comparison is sort of after the fact). Just imagine Karin making the same expression and you'll know why it's funny.


End file.
